This invention relates to tray or bin systems in which a number of individual containers are mounted on a support structure. Such tray or bin systems are used in the home and in industry for storing small items in an organized and readily accessible manner. Typical of such items that are so stored are hardware, such as nuts, bolts, and screws and household items such as costume jewelry, sewing accessories, and other notions.
Hardware items, such as nuts, bolts, and screws, are typically stored in systems having individual drawers mounted in larger support assemblies or are stored in hoppers usually mounted on larger racks. Frequently, it is necessary or desirable to take a number of the hardware items to a particular work area without taking the whole assembly along. Thus, there is a need for providing bin assemblies wherein individual bins can be easily and quickly removed from the supporting system and taken to the work station. Although individual small drawers may be removed from an assembly and taken to a work station, the open top of such drawers presents a drawback in that the contents can easily be spilled. Therefore, there is a need to provide a bin assembly wherein the bins are individually covered and wherein the cover can be easily opened to provide access to the contents of the bin. It would also be desirable to provide a cover which could be completely removed from the top of the bin to allow access to the entire inside of the bin.
In some instances, it may be necessary to carry a number of containers of small articles to a work station. In this case, it would be desirable to provide an assembly with a plurality of containers which can be easily carried by an individual from place to place.
With drawer-type assemblies, the contents of a drawer cannot be visually determined unless the drawer is pulled out a sufficient amount. It would be desirable to provide a storage assembly which would allow visual inspection of the contents without requiring the observer to pull out drawers, lift up covers, etc.
In the interest of saving space, it would be desirable to provide a rotatable storage assembly which could be wall mounted or free standing from a relatively small base.
In order to permit great flexibility in arranging and organizing of the stored items, it would be desirable to provide a storage assembly with individual bins that could be easily interchanged with each other.